Composer naturally inspired by Florida
By Kurt Loft
Eighteen years ago, I spent an afternoon at
the Brandon home of Michael Ippolito, where
he sat at the piano talking about his newly
composed Rhapsodie Pathetique. He played
a passage and looked at me, confidently. “I’m
the piano,’’ he said, “and the orchestra is the
world.’’
It was a heavy dose coming from a 15 year old.
But Ippolito wasn’t like most of his peers about
to enter Brandon High School. The kid seemed
to have his life already worked out on paper –
a musical score, no less – taking charge like a
young Mozart.
The comparison might seem rich, but Ippolito
at the time was doing what great composers
do: writing nascent piano concertos,
symphonies, and chamber pieces.
He performed his Rhapsodie
Pathetique with the Tampa
Bay Youth Orchestra, and
three years later The Florida
Orchestra offered the
premiere of another original
work, Waltz.
Fast forward to 2018, and
Ippolito is letting the ink dry on
yet another creation, but this time
it’s different. His 24-minute piece,
Triptych, is considered a centerpiece
of The Florida Orchestra’s 50th anniversary
season and a shining example of Music Director
Michael Francis’ commitment to music as
a living art. Its commission is sponsored by
Francis and his wife, Cindy.
The world premiere by the orchestra is Feb.
23-25, framed by Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on
a Theme of Paganini and Dvorak’s New World
Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Francis.
What inspired Ippolito to write Triptych?
Florida.
“I’ve never considered writing a piece about
where I grew up, but there are some things
that make me a Floridian, so I wanted to
consider them,’’ he said by phone from his
office at Texas State University in San Marcos,
where he’s assistant professor of composition.
“Until now, I never thought much about what
makes being a Floridian unique, or how to
reflect that in my work.’’
THE FLORIDA OR 44 CHESTRA | 2017-2018
Ippolito drew inspiration for Triptych from
literary works that spoke to Florida’s sense of
place. The first movement, Cypress Cathedral,
was inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s 1851
lecture, Walking: “When I would recreate
myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest
and most impenetrable and to the citizen,
most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a
sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum.’’
This image impressed Ippolito because he
grew up surrounded by cypress trees, which
he describes as being in a Gothic cathedral.
The second movement, On the Curl’d Clouds,
is based on a passage from Shakespeare’s The
Tempest, and reflects a violent summer storm
so common to the Tampa Bay area.
The last movement, Barque of Phosphor,
takes its title from Wallace Stevens’
poem Fabliau of Florida, and
suggests a bright moon reflecting
over the Gulf of Mexico.
“My music loosely follows
the contemplative mood
and imagery of the poem,
beginning with a strange,
high melody representing the
moon,’’ he said.
The 33-year-old composer has
come a long way since Brandon
High School. His music has been
performed by the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony
Orchestra and more, in venues around the
world. He was a composer fellow at the
Aspen Music Festival and Cultivate program
at the Copland House in 2012, and holds
prestigious awards from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, the Juilliard
School of Music, and ASCAP.
Like all of his compositions, Triptych will
take on a life of its own during rehearsal, and
Ippolito will be there to work out any kinks.
“Writing a new work represents two different
experiences for me: composing and hearing,’’
he said. “You really don’t know how it will
sound until it’s put together in rehearsal. And
if something goes wrong, I have a variety of
solutions to make sure things are steered in
the right direction. That’s part of my job.’’